22.10.2021
New Student Readers commissioned at CITI
Four Ordinands at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute were commissioned as Student Readers this week by the Archbishop of Dublin.
Cameron Mack (Connor), Caroline Brennan (Dublin and Glendalough), Daniel Flemming (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory) and Michael Buchanan (Armagh) are first year Student Ordinands at CITI. Archbishop Michael Jackson presided at the service in the College Chapel on Wednesday October 20.
The students were presented to the Archbishop for licensing by the Revd Dr Patrick McGlinchey who coordinates student placements. Student readers are called to lead worship, proclaim the word and assist in the distribution of the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
The Ordinands were being commissioned to a ministry of accompaniment in a time when many of the survivors of the pandemic were already starting to forget the past trauma, the Archbishop said in his sermon.
“This is a vital ministry for our times. This is a traditional ministry in uncharted times. You are the cohort who carry this ministry of accompaniment. It is an urgent need for people inside and outside the church in these times of easing, times that many find already to be quite exhausting and quite overwhelming. Restrictions are going; Personal Responsibility is taking centre stage,” he said.
In the week in which St Luke’s Day was celebrated, Archbishop Jackson drew on St Luke 24.32 – “They said to one another, Were not our hearts on fire as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?”
“Accompaniment, neighbourliness, helping, encouraging – these are now urgent gifts of The Spirit in times of re–opening. You are this generation of ordinands. May the example of the two young apostles in the village of Emmaus lead you forward and send you out,” he said.